thedrifter
02-12-07, 09:00 AM
Photos Help Seniors To Picture The Past
By CHERYL BENTLEY The Suncoast News
Published: Feb 12, 2007
NEW PORT RICHEY - Mary Lankford gazes at a 1945 headline from the Minneapolis Daily Times proclaiming, "War Over."
Hospice social worker Marilyn Sartor asks her if she remembers the end of World War II.
Lankford, 93, recalls celebrating at Reading Terminal in Philadelphia.
"The street was jammed," she said. "We put our arms around sailors and Marines. One sailor was very tall. I said to him, 'How's the weather up there?' He said, 'I'll let you know,' and he picked me up.
"There was so much love, so much caring."
For Lankford and others, pictures elicit memories, as Sartor and colleagues at Gulfside Regional Hospice have discovered.
With a $4,000 grant from United Way of Pasco County, Sartor began the "Life Through Pictures" project more than a year ago with portfolios of her photographs. Gulfside uses them to help patients remember and talk about their lives.
Her photos reflect a wide range of subjects including newspaper headlines, old cars, a bridal gown, yard sales, pets and pastimes. All portfolios are different, each containing about 50 pictures tailored for individual life experiences.
"Getting to know the patient enables us to know what photos are appropriate," Sartor explained.
Her pictures help with what she calls a "life review," which involves "reflecting on one's life and talking about it with another person."
Near the end, hospice patients "need to know their life has had value and meaning," she said. "Looking back helps to put the present pieces of our lives in some sort of order."
And it gives terminal patients "a sense of control and feeling of calm" at a time when their fate is not in their hands.
In her experience, patients prefer to focus on harmonious times and rarely recall traumatic events; but were this to happen, the Gulfside staff is equipped to deal with it, she said.
Photographs of pets and nature appear to awaken a response beyond the verbal for patients with dementia, Sartor said. "They will touch and point at and feel" the pictures, she said.
Conversely, pictures of man-made items usually have little effect on those patients.
She also has included pictures of signposts of modern culture, such as restaurants and home improvement and department stores, to help home-bound patients keep in touch with the world outside.
Such businesses are part of her patients' everyday experience.
"They'll say, 'I can't tell you how many times I had coffee at McDonald's every morning,'" Sartor said.
"One memory leads to another."
That's the case with Mary Lankford. After she recalled the war's end, she shared other memories inspired by a photo of a house with a picket fence.
"It reminds me of my parents' home," she said. "I was born in Philadelphia, West Germantown."
She describes houses in rows, each with a living and dining room, two small bedrooms and bath. And she remembers moving to Ireland.
"That's where my mother came from," Lankford said. "When we came back, we moved to the east side of Germantown, Bucks County, in a white stucco house trimmed with forest green."
The picket fence in the photo reminds her of a hedge she mowed down when she was 12 and tried to drive her father's truck.
The copyright is pending on "Life Through Pictures," for which Sartor received an award of excellence from Florida Hospices and Palliative Care, a nonprofit group representing hospice programs.
Sartor emphasizes the project would not have been possible without the Gulfside administration's support.
Creating "Life Through Pictures" has become its own life review for Sartor. Her photos are deeply personal, she noted.
The Minneapolis Daily Times front page she photographed - the one declaring the war's end - came from a stack of newspapers her father had collected. She found them after his death.
Sartor also photographed a picture of her grandparents at a carnival and included the snapshot in the portfolios.
"I can't paint. I can't draw. I see life through my camera," she said. "To really know who I am is to look at my photographs."
Ellie
By CHERYL BENTLEY The Suncoast News
Published: Feb 12, 2007
NEW PORT RICHEY - Mary Lankford gazes at a 1945 headline from the Minneapolis Daily Times proclaiming, "War Over."
Hospice social worker Marilyn Sartor asks her if she remembers the end of World War II.
Lankford, 93, recalls celebrating at Reading Terminal in Philadelphia.
"The street was jammed," she said. "We put our arms around sailors and Marines. One sailor was very tall. I said to him, 'How's the weather up there?' He said, 'I'll let you know,' and he picked me up.
"There was so much love, so much caring."
For Lankford and others, pictures elicit memories, as Sartor and colleagues at Gulfside Regional Hospice have discovered.
With a $4,000 grant from United Way of Pasco County, Sartor began the "Life Through Pictures" project more than a year ago with portfolios of her photographs. Gulfside uses them to help patients remember and talk about their lives.
Her photos reflect a wide range of subjects including newspaper headlines, old cars, a bridal gown, yard sales, pets and pastimes. All portfolios are different, each containing about 50 pictures tailored for individual life experiences.
"Getting to know the patient enables us to know what photos are appropriate," Sartor explained.
Her pictures help with what she calls a "life review," which involves "reflecting on one's life and talking about it with another person."
Near the end, hospice patients "need to know their life has had value and meaning," she said. "Looking back helps to put the present pieces of our lives in some sort of order."
And it gives terminal patients "a sense of control and feeling of calm" at a time when their fate is not in their hands.
In her experience, patients prefer to focus on harmonious times and rarely recall traumatic events; but were this to happen, the Gulfside staff is equipped to deal with it, she said.
Photographs of pets and nature appear to awaken a response beyond the verbal for patients with dementia, Sartor said. "They will touch and point at and feel" the pictures, she said.
Conversely, pictures of man-made items usually have little effect on those patients.
She also has included pictures of signposts of modern culture, such as restaurants and home improvement and department stores, to help home-bound patients keep in touch with the world outside.
Such businesses are part of her patients' everyday experience.
"They'll say, 'I can't tell you how many times I had coffee at McDonald's every morning,'" Sartor said.
"One memory leads to another."
That's the case with Mary Lankford. After she recalled the war's end, she shared other memories inspired by a photo of a house with a picket fence.
"It reminds me of my parents' home," she said. "I was born in Philadelphia, West Germantown."
She describes houses in rows, each with a living and dining room, two small bedrooms and bath. And she remembers moving to Ireland.
"That's where my mother came from," Lankford said. "When we came back, we moved to the east side of Germantown, Bucks County, in a white stucco house trimmed with forest green."
The picket fence in the photo reminds her of a hedge she mowed down when she was 12 and tried to drive her father's truck.
The copyright is pending on "Life Through Pictures," for which Sartor received an award of excellence from Florida Hospices and Palliative Care, a nonprofit group representing hospice programs.
Sartor emphasizes the project would not have been possible without the Gulfside administration's support.
Creating "Life Through Pictures" has become its own life review for Sartor. Her photos are deeply personal, she noted.
The Minneapolis Daily Times front page she photographed - the one declaring the war's end - came from a stack of newspapers her father had collected. She found them after his death.
Sartor also photographed a picture of her grandparents at a carnival and included the snapshot in the portfolios.
"I can't paint. I can't draw. I see life through my camera," she said. "To really know who I am is to look at my photographs."
Ellie